User Conference 2007 - Special Achievement in GIS

A particular goal of ours is to have the impact of GIS be spread across the entire organization. Consequently, we have several ongoing projects of high impact.

We have worked with Azteca Systems and used their Cityworks product line to better streamline data access and maintenance of our business operation "assets". This includes asset data and work related to items such as water mains, hydrants, sewer infrastructure, stormsewer infrastructure, and street trees.

We are using ArcIMS-based solutions to provide local data resources to internal City staff and the general public, allow users to generate their own thematic maps of data of their own chosing, and to encourage economic development activity in the City by use of web-based technology.

We have also worked with another ESRI Business Partner, MWH Soft, to develop a high quality hydraulic model of our water utility infrastucture. Doing so allows our Engineering and Utility staff to quickly evalute "what if" scenarios.

Learn more about our application: Site 1

Business Problem Solved

Engineering, utility, and urban forestry have access to accurate data in a much more timely fashion. By placing the asset management and work activity inside of a GIS-linked database we've provided a flexible means in which to query and report upon the data.

The Water Utility, Sewer Utility, Engineering Department, and Parks, Recreation, and Forestry Department staff are now able to generate data that they weren't able to before. This has enabled them to make better (and quicker) decisions related to asset management and how to best apply resources towards preventative and repair maintenance. The impact of the Cityworks AM/FM system has been particularly been felt by our Forestry division which had been a completely paper-based operation previously.

Use of Web-based GIS technology has greatly reduced the amount of staff time spent answering simple "geography" questions. Our requests for maps and tabular data has dwindled to about a tenth of what it was.

Technology Implemented

The City of West Bend migrated data resources to ArcSDE in 2006 and uses ArcGIS for data maintenance, analysis, and cartographic product generation. ArcIMS technology (with additional Javascript programming) is used to serve our web-based applications.

Cityworks (Azteca Systems) is used to extend the functionality of ArcGIS to include AM/FM functions for our asset managment "clients" and InfoWater (MWH Soft) software is used to convert our water utlity geodatabase into an intelligent engineering-grade hydraulic model.

Development Team Biography

Peter Miller, GIS Coordinator, has been employed with the City of West Bend during two different terms and was the initial "GIS" hire (1995-1998 & 2002-present).

Greg Walters, GIS Analyst, has been with the City since 1999. Greg's work primarily focuses on providing GIS services to our Engineering Department and Utilities. Greg is also our DBA.

Mat Dvorachek, GIS Analyst, has been with the City since 1998. Mat's work primarily focuses on providing GIS services to the rest of City Hall. Mat is also our ArcIMS programmer and maintains our land records datasets.

Dawn Wiebelhaus, GIS Operator, has been with the City of West Bend in a GIS capacity since 2002. Dawn serves our Community Development functions which covers planning, development review, and economic development.

The following managers have been instrumental in the success of the effort: Dennis Melvin, City Administrator, John Capelle, Director of Community Development, and Terry Kiekhaefer, Public Works Director